Sepang: Team Canada qualifying notes

Everyone was expecting a big difference in conditions at the Malaysian
event -- with both track characteristics and weather. Renowned for
hot humid condition, Sepang hasn't disappointed with air temperatures
of 30 degree and upwards while track ...

Everyone was expecting a big difference in conditions at the Malaysian
event -- with both track characteristics and weather. Renowned for
hot humid condition, Sepang hasn't disappointed with air temperatures
of 30 degree and upwards while track temperatures have exceeded 40
degrees. But no one predicted quite how much the weather would dictate
the qualifying results.

Following the first session, Canada was lying 11th when a huge tropical
storm hit just as cars were on a dash to complete the second segment
before the downpour started but it was too late for Canada and driver
Sean McIntosh slid off the wet track. The remaining two sessions were
then going to be slower given the wet so no position improvement
could be made but the team decided to take a run out to try to get an
advantage in case the rain returns for the races tomorrow.

Sean McIntosh: "We took a bit of a conservative approach with a set-up
that we knew worked on old tyres so we knew we'd got time to come for
the final two sets of slicks. Then the rain came and I slid off the
circuit which cost us ten seconds or so which puts us back down the grid
but we have two races tomorrow and that's the main thing. We just need
to move up in the Sprint and then get a good pit stop in the Feature
race. I'm definitely disappointed where we are because we know the car's
good enough to be in the top three but that's the way circumstances can
affect what happens."